Ultimate Jordan road trip
Ultimate Jordan Road Trip
Jordan had been on our to-do list for a while, since South America actually. We had two different flights booked from Peru to Jordan visa Madrid, but both were cancelled due to Israel bombing Palestine and all that nonsense. However, we still wanted to visit, but a bit later, so whilst in Bosnia Herzegovina, we decided to fly to Paris, then to Cyprus, then to Amman from there.
We spent a week in Amman, which is a pretty cool city overall, with some genuinely friendly people and quite a lot of fake friendly people, which is a shame. It seems that pretending to be nice in English then insulting people in Arabic is quite common - this really brings down a person's view of the country as a whole, and it's a disgusting way to treat tourists.
If you've seen my video with Djibril, the "Somali" guy who decided to take me to a viewpoint (2 minutes away from where I was), then asked for money (I recorded it but didn't put it in the video). You may think he was actually friendly, he wasn't, he was a total bellend.
We went to his local takeaway and had some food which I bought, then I gave him the change, which was about £5. I then mentioned I was going to the market and he wanted to join me so I took his number, but I decided later that I would enjoy it more without him so I didn't message him. He had my number though as I called him to make sure it was his number when we were eating.
A few days later he decided it'd be normal behaviour to send me like 20 aggressive voice notes, sucking his teeth to show disgust. I just ignored them all, knowing I was right about him. He was just a pest, looking to take money from tourists.
He finally stopped when I responded to him saying - Djibril, if you send me one more message like this, I'll come to find you and make you stop. He understood the threat it seems. He was a very, very small man with a huge attitude.
Anyway, me and Tanya rented a car and drove from Amman to Petra, checked out Petra then went to Wadi Rum and stayed the night in a bubble tent in the middle of the desert. That was very cool, extremely silent, great sleep.
We then drove to Aqaba, with the idea of swimming, but the beach was horrible and all of the nice beaches seemed to be blocked off by giant hotel chains - this is something I find completely vile. Billionaires buying seafront land, building massive hotels, and blocking everybody from getting to a clean beach unless you're a customer. This happens a lot in Mexico and Dominican Republic, regardless of how legal it is. It's illegal in most places, but still happens. Corrupt leaders always take bribes.
We then quickly left Aqaba and drove to the dead sea, where the exact same thing seemed to happen - the shore was blocked by large hotels. We found a free part and went for a swim, but we were followed and harassed by some teenager who wouldn't leave us alone until we paid him - I didn't pay him a penny, as I told him from the second I parked the car that I did not want him to follow us, or guide us, or any sort of help, but he refused to listen until I pushed him away.
No means yes to some people. That ideology will be transferred to far more dangerous and destructive situations.
It was cool to float in the dead sea, it's exactly what you hear about, you literally cannot sink. I probably won't go back to Jordan, but it was pretty cool overall.